


A Loose Tie

by skj



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Hickeys, M/M, Relationship Reveal, basically what you might think, the team finds out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,643
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25102591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skj/pseuds/skj
Summary: While working a late night case, Spencer Reid loosens his tie and very accidentally shows off some impressive hickeys.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid
Comments: 6
Kudos: 448





	A Loose Tie

**Author's Note:**

> Quarantine has me on a major CM binge and this funny idea popped into my head after reading several stories that I decided to mash into one. I basically combined an unexpected and accidental coming out/relationship reveal with a funny hickey situation. Enjoy :-)

A local case landed the team in FBI headquarters for the significant foreseeable future. It was an extremely high profile case involving more than one important politician, so the BAU A-team wouldn’t be going home any time soon.

Two a.m. came and went with no new developments, so everyone just worked the same tired leads with different angles. With no new approaches, everyone drove themselves crazy trying to come up with new theories and ideas. 

JJ looked nearly ready to stick her pencil into anything it could reach as she entertained call after call of “Mommy, when will you be home?” from her sleepless son at home. Prentiss had this empty stare into the wall, obviously not able to keep focus very long. Morgan’s office had a rhythmic _thump, thump_ coming from within its walls (meaning the agent was throwing his stress ball into the wall and catching it as it rebounded). Due to their inability to reach Garcia, it was likely that she fell asleep on top of her keyboard as she usually did with very late nights. None of them were bothered enough to get up and wake her, seeing as they were all falling asleep themselves.

Reid felt about ready to implode. His brain was saturated with information that he wasn’t sure was even useful and he didn’t know how to classify it. He rubbed the bridge of his nose to fend off a headache he felt coming and leaned back in his chair, throwing the case files onto his desk and letting out an exasperated sigh. All he wanted was to go home with Aaron, shower (with Aaron), and sleep until noon (with Aaron). 

As if summoned by thought, Hotch’s door opened, turning Reid’s head and eliciting a smile from him when he saw his (top secret) boyfriend walking out of his office. Hotch walked out to the railing and announced, “There’s a new lead. Round table in 10,” in his usual authoritarian voice before retreating back to his office. 

Immediately, the mood in the bullpen changed. Reid noticed Prentiss’s vacant stare focus itself and a relieved smile made its way across her face. Morgan peeked his head out of his office as Garcia made her way into the bullpen and they threw each other half-hearted winks. JJ shot a text to Will saying she couldn’t take anymore calls from the boys before looking up at Spencer and saying, “Shall we?” 

Reid flashed her his signature ambivalent smile before nodding and, picking up his messenger back, heading side by side with JJ to the conference room, followed closely by Emily, Penelope, and Derek, the tired sound of dragging footsteps being their giveaway.

Spencer took his regular seat, and, with notice of the time, once again sighed and loosened his tie before opening the first buttons on his shirt and letting his neck free of the stale, day-old clothes. The promise of a shower would get him to do anything imaginable at that second.

Immediately, the soft chatter in the room stopped as all eyes trained on Reid. Or, well, right below his face. He quickly realized his mistake, thinking of the copious sucked-in bruises littering his torso.

JJ was the first to break the silence with a teasing smile. 

“How long were you going to wait before telling us you were getting lucky, Spencer?” 

Morgan next, with a shit-eating smirk. “Yeah, Pretty Boy, that’s an impressive little bruise you’ve got there. Or, wait, hold on,” he continued, leaning over and pushing Spencer’s shirt farther off his shoulder. Reid reddened. Morgan whistled. “Quite a _few_ impressive hickeys.” Some light hearted jabs and cat calls followed Morgan’s statements as Spencer tried to stammer an explanation.

Spencer felt his face heat up significantly. He thought of the night before, when he spent hours with Aaron in his bed, just lazily making out. Followed by not so lazy sex. And then again, even more not-lazy. Reflecting, that was probably why he was so tired. He smiled internally at the recent memories before remembering the humiliating topic at hand.

He and Hotch kept their relationship secret, of course. Being out of the closet in law enforcement was still seen as a significant risk, not to mention the fact that Aaron was his boss, which was an extra no-no. It’s not like they didn’t want the team to know, it’s just that once they told them, it was only a matter of time before it got out to the rest of the Bureau. The team was family, and both men agreed that it was hell keeping it from them.

Hotch chose that convenient moment to walk into the conference room. His eyes were trained on the recently sent files in his hands, so he didn’t see the spectacle of his team members ribbing Spencer for the _impressive_ abundance of hickeys and small bites all over his chest. But, Reid supposed, he definitely heard the out of place giggles. Looking up from his seat, he saw Reid with his head in his heads and JJ found and pointed out the darkest hickey yet. Spencer saw a look of alarm flash across the team leader’s face, but it was just as quickly masked with a look he couldn’t quite place.

“Hotch, look, Pretty Boy’s getting lucky,” said Morgan with his signature twinkling smile. 

Hotch took a significant pause and nearly coughed his insides out in what looked like trying to withhold a reaction. The team took quick notice and stopped teasing Reid about his chest before turning to their slightly pink boss. 

“Everything good, Aaron?” smirked a suspecting Rossi from his seat at the table. 

Reid’s panicked eyes met the boss’s from across the table and he stealthily mouthed _I’m sorry_.

“Yes, thank you,” Hotch answered curtly before returning a quick look of absolution at Reid and continuing to avert his gaze from anyone on the team in what Spencer recognized as fear that they would associate the redness blooming on his face with his own.

Hotch’s response would have gone over smoothly with nothing except a sideways glance in a normal group, but in a room full of profilers, he had basically just made a long, heartfelt confession.

The sound of a pencil drop would have resounded throughout the room at the silence that followed. JJ’s mouth hung open more than any of them had seen and Emily’s eyes were wide with a huge, open smile painted on her face. Morgan just spun around, looking between both of them with disbelief while Rossi just chuckled, his suspicions having been confirmed. Garcia was the last to get it, but she wasn’t slow on the uptake. She also happened to be the first to break the silence. 

“Baby genius and boss man?” she nearly squealed in utter surprise after what felt like several minutes.

“Don’t call him a baby, Garcia, it makes me sound like an old man and a pervert,” Hotch muttered with a small smile, looking quite accepting of the cat having been let out of the bag. 

As soon as the sentence had left his mouth, the silence wore off the rest of the team and the two were bombarded with questions being said too fast to even comprehend.

The couple made meaningful eye contact across the table yet again and Hotch silenced the group by putting his hand up and firmly saying, “Stop.”

The bombardment of questions quickly ceased, but not without protest from a few members of the team. Hotch once again held his hand up and the protests, too, stopped.

Reid cleared his throat and softly spoke up. “Aaron and I have been dating for over a year. We didn’t tell anyone for the glaringly obvious reasons, but I guess with the stress level of the current case, I wasn’t quite as vigilant as I would be with a clear, well-rested head, and I let myself slip. I think I speak for both of us when I ask of you all to please keep this between us.” Hotch nodded at that. “It could cause unimaginable problems for all of us. We really wanted to tell you, but it is such a precarious situation that we didn’t know if we could risk it. Believe me when I say it made me feel awful keeping this from you guys.”

That seemed to answer everyone’s questions. Soft smiles took over for incessant questions.

“You have our word,” JJ said, nodding solemnly along with the rest of the team.

“Don’t feel bad for keeping it from us. Please. Your safety and comfort is more important. Being gay in law enforcement can be awful. Just awful,” Emily supplied, speaking from experience. 

“You’re happy, Pretty Boy?” Morgan queried. 

Spencer smiled rather bashfully and nodded.

“Boss?” Morgan continued. 

Hotch ducked his head slightly into the files in front of him to hide a furious blush before answering softly, “Of course.”

As the last statement sunk in with the group, Garcia piped in, “As much as I love love, which you guys know is a lot a lot, I do not want to be thinking about the situation in which _this_ ,” she gestured toward Reid’s exposed neck and upper chest, “occurred. So I will be putting this away,” she said as she gently closed Spencer’s shirt back up and everyone laughed. Hotch and Reid were chuckling along, red in the face as JJ finalized, “Amen to that.” 

David, first to guess and first to get over the moment, added, “Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but don’t we have a trafficking ring targeting a dozen Senators?”

“Oh, god, right,” Hotch said, before officially putting the fiasco behind them and launching into the explanation of the new lead.

Not for the first or last time that night, Aaron and Spencer made eye contact full of appreciation and contentment across the table.


End file.
